Well, by age 22 or so most of them will be playing ZERO baseball games per year, so play while you can.
OT: Pony League World Series
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
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This year's 14U Pony kids were born between September 1, 2006 and August 31, 2007 meaning that none of them will be 15 before September 1. If there are 14 year olds starting their sophomore year of HS, that is their parents' fault.
Some of the ways they determine when you start school are weird. My daughter was born August 17th, and September 1st was the cutoff in our school district, meaning kids born September 2nd, two weeks younger, might be a grade behind her. Didn't think about it at the time, but it might of been better to wait a year to start her in school. But for us anyways, sports weren't at all a part of the conversation when we where starting her in Pre-K. But I get it, I saw it first hand, parents who where practically sports agents, doing everything possible as if their kids where a lock for the pros. Of course, I was 42 when my daughter was born, so I was more like a 70s parent than a current parent, where sports where just a time passing activity, and it was never a quest for a scholarship
I agree with this - and this is the direction that a bunch of youth leagues are going. A ton of youth baseball leagues have dropped out of the Little League framework and moved to the Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken system where 9/10 year olds play on the Little League diamond (46' pitching, 60' baselines), and 11/12 year olds play on diamonds with 50' pitching and 70' baselines, with runners taking leads, pitchers working out of the stretch, and running on a dropped third strike. Then by the time kids are 13 and older, you're on the full-sized diamond with shorter fences. More and more leagues are leaving Little League Baseball and moving to that system every year - though mostly out east and in the central part of the state.
And it makes sense - we don't have 13 year old basketball players playing with 8 foot hoops. They play on a standard court, with standard hoops, just maybe with a slightly smaller ball (or not? I have no idea). Little League baseball, in particular, has really become antiquated over the past decade or two as kids have gotten bigger and stronger. By the time you get to the upper tournament levels, Little League baseball is basically a video game, and it barely resembles baseball at all.
My Mom goes to church with the guy who is the President of the PONY League, and his wife is the attorney we used when my Dad passed.
Let me know if you would like her to pass on any of your words of wisdom to him. I'm sure he'd be interested in your opinions.
What I was told is BV is a well respected area. Many players travel to play for BV. The top players from the BV area are recruited over to Youngstown. It might have just been a disgruntled parent at the game but I have heard this before. Youngstown is a powerhouse that recruits
I watched a little of it.Good to hear Lanny Frattare behind the mic again.Another mistake the Pirates made.
A trend I am noticing more and more are that May birthdays are now "redshirting." I personally know 2 guaranteed D1 athletes who have May birthdays and were far ahead of their peers at the young ages but their parents still decided to redshirt them. Huge sports families so I'm sure that was why.Some of the ways they determine when you start school are weird. My daughter was born August 17th, and September 1st was the cutoff in our school district, meaning kids born September 2nd, two weeks younger, might be a grade behind her. Didn't think about it at the time, but it might of been better to wait a year to start her in school. But for us anyways, sports weren't at all a part of the conversation when we where starting her in Pre-K. But I get it, I saw it first hand, parents who where practically sports agents, doing everything possible as if their kids where a lock for the pros. Of course, I was 42 when my daughter was born, so I was more like a 70s parent than a current parent, where sports where just a time passing activity, and it was never a quest for a scholarship
Beaver Valley is the #1 travel program in Western PA so it would make sense that kids from Youngstown drive there for travel ball. However, you know how it goes. Lets say there's 4 Youngstown BV players, well they get there 3 buddies to use their aunt in Youngstown's address so they can play for their Pony all-star team. I mean that probably didn't happen but stuff like that does happen.
This is not uncommon, mainly for very affluent families or families with a stay at home parent. Less affluent or dual income families tend to start as early as possible because of the expense of pre-K childcare, which can run as high as $18K or more per year!
BV's "A" teams are some of the top teams in the midwest and Northeast and can hold their own nationally. And they do recruit from all over western PA and eastern OH. The other BV teams (some age groups have as many as 4 teams) are just run of the mill travel club teams. Nothing special and likely not worth the $ required to play there.
If my kids were June, July, or August, I would have held them back (for sports). May though, you have to draw a line somewhere. They will be celebrating their 19th birthday during their senior year of HS. That's just not right.
I agree though that the lower-income families usually send their kids to kindergarten at 4 turning 5 in a few months.
Everything is like that though. You have your elite team full of kids who will be D1 prospects but then there's a bunch of lower teams that almost anyone can make that just serve as "fundraisers" for the business. I know kids who play for the lower Beaver Valley teams. How much do you think they pay (not including hotels and transportation)?
I'm guessing somewhere around $2K to $2500 for summer ball and another $500/$600 for fall ball. Am I right?
So you're saying these families are deciding like at age 4 or 5, to start their kids a year later for sports purposes? LOL! My daughter didn't even play sports yet, other than a weekly gymnastics class and maybe some swimming lessons. She never played soccer until age 8, never played travel until 8th grade, clearly we weren't a "sports family" LOL. And what you're saying, correct me if I'm wrong, is they knew they where guaranteed D1 athletes at age 4-5? My daughter was getting cut from travel team tryouts at age 14, before being all conference in high school and playing one year in college, so I could pf never predicted it! I guess she bloomed later, LOL
What SMF is saying is true. There are families out there that hold their kids back so that they will be ahead of the rest of the kids from a physical development perspective. And once you are ahead of the others, the "outliers" affect can take over. If you've read Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Outliers" you would see that there is some evidence to suggest that your birthday impacts the success you have in sports. If you are old for your age group, you tend to get more attention from the coaches, end up being selected for a higher caliber of competition, and thus develop your skills even faster than other kids in your age group. Of course there are exceptions. But in general, there is truth to this.So you're saying these families are deciding like at age 4 or 5, to start their kids a year later for sports purposes? LOL! My daughter didn't even play sports yet, other than a weekly gymnastics class and maybe some swimming lessons. She never played soccer until age 8, never played travel until 8th grade, clearly we weren't a "sports family" LOL. And what you're saying, correct me if I'm wrong, is they knew they where guaranteed D1 athletes at age 4-5? My daughter was getting cut from travel team tryouts at age 14, before being all conference in high school and playing one year in college, so I could pf never predicted it! I guess she bloomed later, LOL
The families I know have parents who were former college athletes so yes, I would imagine they held back for sports. I remember I met the one kid when he was in K and I thought he was in 1st or 2nd since I've never seen him so I asked his mom and she said pre-school and I was floored. He probably could have kicked my @ss as a preschooler. This kid is D1 for sure and shouldn't have been held back but that will only help him.So you're saying these families are deciding like at age 4 or 5, to start their kids a year later for sports purposes? LOL! My daughter didn't even play sports yet, other than a weekly gymnastics class and maybe some swimming lessons. She never played soccer until age 8, never played travel until 8th grade, clearly we weren't a "sports family" LOL. And what you're saying, correct me if I'm wrong, is they knew they where guaranteed D1 athletes at age 4-5? My daughter was getting cut from travel team tryouts at age 14, before being all conference in high school and playing one year in college, so I could pf never predicted it! I guess she bloomed later, LOL
I guess I'm really old school, like my parents generation, I mean the current generation of helicopter parents are micromanaging kids sports careers. Thinking about going D1 and pro at age 4. I was thinking about her being involved in some activity to hopefully stay out of trouble. She played soccer and did ballet dancing for pretty much 12 years each. When her travel soccer team coach said she should quit ballet and obsess over soccer, and she didn't want to, I thought he was nuts. She wanted to do both- I think maybe ballet made her more flexible for soccer too, we never thought about college scholarships for anything, in fact until she tried out for high school soccer, I expected that she'd never make the team, she just happened to get good right at that point in time, right after getting cut from a travel team tryout, she made the high school team and some of the girls who made the travel team didn't. LOL. It's all insanity, later that year she joined another team and beat the coach that cut her and then he told me he regretted cutting her, because she seemed so much better now! There also was a girl on the high school JV, her mom hired professionals to come to the game and shoot videos to send to college coaches and bragged about how great she was, paid extra for personal coaching by a former soccer pro, who played MLS and Indoor soccer, then she was cut from the varsity the next year and never played again! Her mom reamed out the coaches on the field after the final day of tryouts, in front of everyone! LOL. My daughter, who had no videos or personal coaches, of course made that team! LOL! Also knew a family that paid for top level travel teams and personal trainers, for 10 years, like $10K per year, saying it was an investment for a college scholarship, she got her college scholarship too! It was worth $600 per year at a D2 school, IMO modern ''sports parents'' are sometimes insane! The majority of them are insane! It's like buying $100 worth of Powerball tickets every day. You invest THOU$AND$ and maybe like 2% ever get the scholarships.
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I don't think many people are paying all this money for travel teams so their kid can get a scholarship. No one can be that stupid. I think its more of a status thing. If your kid is NOT on a travel team, its like an embarrassment to those parents. And the kids really do like playing 100 games per year. Part of that is they don't know anything else but they all like it. No one goes over their friend's houses or plays at the local park anymore because these kids are 5-6 day/week athletes from age 6 but no one seems to complain. Its just a culture shift. Travel sports and Fortnite. That's life
Some people do think that, and they often over value their kid's ability. The woman paying for the videos really did, the girl who got the $600 scholarship, her parents where expecting way more. I actually undervalued my kid, she went way farther than I ever thought she would. But I'm like from the 70s, like I said, when she decided to play high school and rec soccer and dance ballet I didn't care, I wasn't like OMG it's not travel anymore
LOL
